UCL became the first site outside
the US connected to the ARPAnet (the precursor to the Internet) in
1973. Since then, the Systems and Networks Research Group at UCL has been a
global leader in the design, building, and analysis of networked
computer systems. The group stands out among high-profile
networking research groups for its success spanning research and
practice: we disseminate high-impact scientific results in leading
publication venues, and we engage closely with the IETF standards body
to ensure that these innovations find wide use in the Internet. We
regularly place our PhD graduates in positions in the world's elite
computer science research institutions, both in academia and industry.

We are excited to be networks researchers at this stage of the
evolution of the Internet, because of two developments that together
signal a renaissance in how we understand and build networks:

The first is that more and more aspects of networks are open to
'hacking' i.e. we can use software to try out new styles of
communication, new ways to build protocols, and new designs for
Internet architecture. This is especially true with software radios,
and also with peer-to-peer networking.

The second is that there have been major advances in
understanding how it is that complex behaviour emerges in large systems built
out of simple components. This is prompting new approaches to
congestion control and traffic management.

The Internet is by far the most complex interconnected system every
built by man; it has become an essential part of modern society, yet
much of its behaviour is based on standards from a simpler time, and
the dynamics at scale are not as well understood as we might wish. To
thrive, fundamental changes will be needed in the next decade. It is
the role of networking research to shape this future.